“You stayed in?” Taylor asked, dubious. Then her eyes widened. “Oh, I get it. In bed all night?”
Logan watched Pepper shrug, reaching across the table to wipe sauce from the corner of his lip. He smiled in thanks, looking back down at the pasta he was devouring.
“Yeah, I guess. I was on duty for 42 hours and got back really late,” Pepper explained. “Logan prepared me a bath and let me sleep for 14 hours.” Her eyes glazed over just thinking about it. She sighed, shifting her gaze to her husband. “You were wonderful, Lo.”
“Anything for you.”
“Oh. Ew. We’re eating. None of this.” Murphy muttered moving his fork in a circular motion to mean whatever was happening. “Please.”
“Hold on. Wait a minute. Yesterday was Valentine’s.” Taylor looked baffled. “Are you having a makeup date, or something? Or did you already have a pre-Valentine’s date?”
It would have almost looked comical how Pepper and Logan blinked at the same time, processing the question.
It’s been years since they talked about it. Married for four years now, they’ve been together almost a decade and they haven’t ‘celebrated’ Valentine’s in most of them.
“Um,” Logan started, looking towards Pepper for support.
Pepper only shrugged. Being the woman, Pepper has had to answer this question more than Logan, as sexist as society still was. Pepper was expected to look forward to it. Logan was expected to stress over how they were supposed to spend February 14th. They conformed during their Hogwarts years, of course. But work wasn’t as easy to manoeuvre around as school.
“Logan and I have a weekly date night. We don’t the see the point of spending one day special.”
“Sounds boring,” Murphy muttered.
“Yesterday was Wednesday-”
“Thursday, love,” Logan corrected, knowing going on duty sometimes messed up the time in Pepper’s head.
“It confuses my brain sometimes, ok? I go to work and the sun isn’t up yet today, and I go home when the sun is already down the next day. It’s hard to keep up.” Logan just wrapped his arms around her because the first few times she went on duty she looked ready to fall asleep on her feet.
“Thursday,” she nodded thanks to Logan. “It’s completely impractical to go out.”
“You’re off today,” Taylor reminded her.
Pepper ignore her. “Traffic worsens significantly.” Thank god she can apparate. “Prices go up. Restaurants get crowded. It’s a nightmare.”
Taylor was looking incredulously at her. “You talk like you’re single.”
“I’m happily married, thank you.” To prove her point, Pepper extended her hand, and Logan caught it as if he already knew she wanted them to hold hands.
And maybe he did. The bonding that happened during their marriage made them empaths to each other. Most of the time he couldn’t tell if it was just him knowing her, or if it was the magical bond thing he was told lit them up when they were saying their vows. He couldn’t remember. He was too busy looking at Pepper’s eyes at the time.
“Logan bought us a yacht last week?” Pepper tried to save face.
“What the f-” Murphy threw up his hands, still in disbelief at how rich the couple were, despite working with Logan for 2 years now.
“That was for your parents, Pep,” Logan reminded her.
“Oh, yeah! So they can go on that cruise.” Pepper had started to build her contacts list ever since joining the Auror Academy, and her biggest case so far involved saving the daughter of the biggest potions distributor in the Wizarding World, who also happened to dabble in muggle markets. She pulled a few strings. Golden strings really. Heavy duty ones.
Taylor dropped her head to prop it up with her hand, overdramatically facepalming. “You’re not doing this couple thing right.”
Pepper pursed her lips, disagreeing silently.
Logan and she didn’t celebrate Valentine’s day. But the day prior, she remembered bribing one of their handlers to let her go for an hour in the early morning so she could have breakfast with Logan. She was running on zero sleep, but she brightened at seeing him. They fed each other pancakes, even if they preferred the same kind anyway so they had the same flavors on their plates. And she remembered burrowing in his embrace, reluctantly letting go, and stealing a small, affectionate kiss before disapparating back.
Logan was chewing thoughtfully, also remembering the day prior.
Pepper’s official time out of work was 5PM, but that rarely ever happened. He had bought dinner for them, as inept as he still was at cooking. But the hours had passed until it was nearing 10PM. So he shifted their plans to a bath and sleep right after. He’d decorate the bathroom with candles and waved his wand to keep the water warm for Pepper. He helped her undress when she got home, but they never did anything more than hold each other that night. He fell asleep with his arms around her and his lips pressed to the back of her head.
He smiled, lifting Pepper’s hand he was holding to his lips, winking at her. She smiled back, a rose color slightly dusting her cheeks.
Taylor sighed, unaware of their thoughts, but eyeing they interlocked hands. “Maybe you can kiss my hand, too, Logan.”
Pepper raised her eyebrows at her friend. “Uh. No. We might not have done anything yesterday, but Logan’s lips have been somewhere this morning that you do not want to touch you-”
Taylor lifted her hand hurriedly. “Oh. Girl. That’s too much information-”
“That’s it. I need a drink.” Murphy stood up and walked towards the bar.
Pepper only laughed, which prompted Logan to lean in for a kiss, unable to help himself after remembering last night and that morning.












